By Michael Hill
Correspondent
On Newark’s South 11 Street, house after house after house abandoned and boarded up. But at Thursday’s auction of city properties, someone bought this vacant lot for nearly $7,000.
Another investor — RDM Concepts Holding in Manhattan — says it scooped up eight properties to turn most of them in to Section 8 housing or affordable housing for Newarkers who work.
“Progress can happen. You just have to sit down and do it,” said Victor Baker.
Six years ago, Baker and Hassan Keith — a Newark native — turned what were five empty lots into brand new, two-story houses on South Ninth Street and sold them. Their first project.
Keith and Baker and their partners won the competitive bids for all five empty lots on South Ninth Street in 2008. They say they took huge risks because at the time, the economy was on the skids and the housing market, well, both were on the fast track bound for the Great Recession.
This week, the duo — colleges buddies from Rutgers — and their partners broke ground on the Lofts at Lincoln Park — 24 two- and three-bedroom, two-bath condos with hardwood floors on Newark’s Clinton Avenue — using private and public sector funds.
“Why Newark? I say, ‘Why not?’ There’s an active landscape downtown. It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Baker said.
Mayor Ras Baraka congratulated Baker and Keith for “being first to the table.”
“First to the table in terms of these neighborhoods because that’s where we’re going in the city. It’s time for us to go up in the neighborhoods. And a lot of folks take risks but they take calculated risks downtown. We are ready for people to take the risk where the risk is needed the most and it’s needed the most in our neighborhoods,” Baraka said.
“But sure enough there’s some small businesses that have popped up,” said Dr. Peter Hoontis.
Rutgers Newark’s Associate Dean Dr. Hoontis offers a personal and academic perspective. Five years ago, he left New York, settled near Military Park and witnessed the neighborhood businesses that opened up to support the residents’ needs.
Dr. Hoontis says that’s the challenge for residential developers.
“There is a level of trust that those other services will soon develop to help make their investment successful,” he said.
And that’s part of what Baker and Keith are banking on.
“We definitely want to see more people that live here, who are born and raised here, to become part of the economic development in the city of Newark. I think that’s a real big responsibility,” said Keith.
Baker says it’s also about inspiring the young Newarkers — like his children — who see the blight but also the opportunity to build a better Newark.